Think of the 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLC as a high-riding C-Class abject wagon, and you won’t be far off. It’s far from shady, either; the GLC has a analogously composed ride and a leash of accommodating engines.

We amount it a 7 here, based on the GLC300, the best-seller in the family. AMG models accord out application like Halloween bonbon and spiral bottomward the GLC’s administration to auto levels of grip, so as you ability imagine, our appraisement would go college for those. (Read added about how we amount cars.)

With the GLC300, Mercedes curtains a 2.0-liter turbo-4 with absolute bang and stop/start. With 241 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque, the GLC300 SUV comes in rear- or all-wheel drive, but GLC300 Coupes alone appear with the latter. Both ascendancy ability via a 9-speed automatic.

In any combination, these abject GLCs accept able performance. The turbo-4 pumps out its advance beyond a big block of the accessible powerband, and Benz promises 0-60 mph times of beneath than 6.5 seconds. It’s aesthetic admitting a little blatant at the top end of its range, and the stop/start isn’t the smoothest we’ve felt. The 9-speed automated doles out mostly humble shifts, admitting it can blunder as it picks out and aims for lower gears. There is a advanced ambit in admiration and in about-face speeds as the disciplinarian selects Comfort or Action or alike Action drive modes.

The accepted all-wheel-drive arrangement ships 55 percent of its torque to the rear auto at launch, but varies the administration according to administration and absorption needs. Unlike added Benz SUVs, the GLC doesn’t action a cogwheel lock or a low range.

Mercedes will fit the GLC300 with air springs and adaptive dampers, but alike in banal trim, it can accouterment some impressively big bumps with pose. It’s controlled and precise, behindhand of setup, but add on the account and it’s absolute graceful, a affluence agent that soaks up alley flaws after float. The council doesn’t action abundant advice at all in abject trim, but AMG versions get actual absorbed on communicating with the driver-for acceptable reason.

Strap on a twin-turbo agent and spiral bottomward the suspension, and the GLC gets to abrasion AMG initials. In both AMG forms, the AMG GLC is adorable as oxygen, but in the AMG GLC43 it’s a bit added sublime.

In the GLC43, Benz swaps out the turbo-4 for a 362-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 with 384 lb-ft of torque, which peaks at a almost low 2,000 rpm. Its on-time accession helps the GLC43 hit 60 mph in alone 4.8 seconds. A 9-speed automated and all-wheel drive appear with the engine, and the automated gets bigger arrangement that works bigger than the accessory version.

Everything about the GLC43 gets better. It delivers a pillowy ride admitting bigger 21-inch auto acknowledgment to its accepted air suspension, and anchor improves with a added arresting ability breach to the rear wheels. The V-6 thunders to life, and barks out through a action bankrupt that ancestor and crackles—maybe a little too abundant at college agent speeds.

The added ride acme and 4,100-pound barrier weight gray out some of the active AMG-ness, but the GLC43 handles actual able-bodied and the council grows added active than in the GLC300. The GLC43 hustles into corners, smartly authoritative its body, and charcoal abnormally collapsed in action mode.

Go all-out, and the GLC ancestors finds its craziest about in the GLC63 and GLC63 S. The amount is a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 with 469 hp 479 lb-ft of torque. Stocked with a 9-speed automated and all-wheel drive, it shoots to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds—unless it’s a GLC63 S, which blooms to 503 hp and 516 lb-ft, and drops 0-60 mph times of 3.8 seconds.

Every GLC63 has a limited-slip rear differential, admitting S models accept an electronically controlled adaptation for quicker ability transfer. That’s an E63 arbor alive beyond the rear, which can’t be bad at all, and a Race approach in its disciplinarian controls. We haven’t apprenticed one yet, but we’ll address added actuality already we have.